"Not by any means," retorted Nanon; "and if your political police is no better organized than your amorous police, I pity you."
"You pity me?"
"Yes; for this Monsieur de Canolles, whom you gratuitously honor by believing him to be your rival, is not here, and you are at liberty to wait and see if he comes."
"He has come."
"He?" cried Nanon. "That is not true!"
There was an unmistakable accent of truth in this exclamation of the accused.
"I mean that he came within four hundred yards, and stopped at the Golden Calf, luckily for him."
Nanon saw that the duke was not nearly so well informed as she had supposed at first; she shrugged her shoulders as another idea, prompted doubtless by the letter, which she was folding and unfolding in her hands, began to take root in her mind.
"Is it possible," said she, "that a man of intellect, one of the cleverest politicians in the kingdom, allows himself to be gulled by anonymous letters?"
"That's all very well; but how do you explain this letter, anonymous or not?"